Meet Kristia Wantchekon Our May 2017 Volunteer Spotlight

Kristia Wantchekon is a 4th year middle school one-on-one volunteer at the Kennedy-Longfellow School. In her first three years with T+ she volunteered at Fletcher Maynard Elementary School. Kristia did her undergraduate degree at Yale University, where she double majored in Political Science and Economics with a focus on Urban Policy. After college she joined Teach for America, through which she taught 4th and 5th grade in New Orleans.

After two years of wonderful students and a lot of crawfish, she moved to Cambridge, where she began working with the Harvard Education Innovation Lab. After two years of collaborating with school districts to implement the lab’s research findings, she began her PhD in Human Development, Learning, and Teaching at Harvard University, where she is currently finishing up her second year (and hopefully passing her comprehensive exams this month!).

“Leaving the classroom after Teach for America was a tough transition for me because I love working with students, so I was so grateful to find a home at Tutoring Plus when I moved up the Cambridge. Getting to work with students has been fun and rewarding, and helps me stay connected to the classroom and students when my doctoral research starts to feel a little too theoretical!”